When asked if she’d ever missed out on a big role, Kaling, 35, replied, “No one ever calls me in to audition for things because I’m so specific. Actually, you know what it was — Bridesmaids, which I loved. They called me in for Maya Rudolph’s part, and I practiced it so much and I was so into it, and I love that whole cast. That one was a heartbreaker.”

Host Cohen went on to praise Kaling’s acting talents, saying, “I have to assume that your writing career and acting on TV is kind of holding you back from what I’m sure will be a major film career. Do you have to turn a lot of stuff down?”

“I kind of stopped thinking of myself as all of the things that people would think that would make me different than anyone else,” she told the WWHL audience. “Because I’m an Indian woman, and I don’t look a lot like people on TV, the only thing I could think was ‘Focus on not what makes me different, but just work really hard and try to be the best no matter what category.’ If there are women of color watching this, the outside world will tell you how different you are, and I just think it’s so important to not get distracted by that. That’s my way of doing it.”

Tell Us: Do you think Mindy Kaling would have done a good job in Maya Rudolph’s Bridesmaids role?